You Are What You Believe

Without doubt, what and how you think, shape what you see. And your belief determines what you get out of life. So, for starters, if your life is not what you would like it to be, it's time to re-examine what you believes, and where necessary change your beliefs.

The question is: what exactly are beliefs?
There is no simple definition, however, it suffices to just say that beliefs are ideas you hold on to as facts; thoughts that you've processed through your mind repeatedly, and as such, constitute the foundation of your world view and life experiences. Unfortunately, beliefs are not always facts, neither are they universal truths, but your mind gives power to what you think repeatedly; power enough to control your life.

I read somewhere that: "your beliefs have a great deal of power over you, because you consistently come across evidence to support them. Your experiences in life will constantly prove your beliefs to be seemingly factually correct. The reason for this is that your conscious mind cannot possibly cope with every piece of information that it is exposed to. So your subconscious sifts all the information it receives and rejects that which contradicts your beliefs and retains that which supports them."


That explains why you would always see what you believe as facts and universal truths. Our beliefs come from a myriad of sources; what we learnt from parents as kinds, from teachers at school, from friends, societal norms and values and the list could go on.

However, what is important is not where your beliefs come from, but the fact that they influence your life because your mind sees them as undeniable fact. The worst problem with beliefs is that most of us leave with 'Limiting Beliefs', which tend to hold us back from going for what we want out of life, or interfere with our attempts to think about things in a new way. How you regard yourself, your strengths, abilities, financial situation, friends and families, to a large extent, determine your success in life.

If you are the type that has been programmed to see evil in everything, if you believe you can't achieve anything good, if you don't trust in your strengths, abilities and capacities; you may never be able to change things for the better in your life. Instead, you will encounter plenty of obstacles to support your belief that this is beyond your capabilities, your family doesn’t love you, your friends don't appreciate you or whatever it is that you're assuming to be the case.

Conversely, if you believe positively in your abilities and strengths; if you believe your family and friends love you and would always be there for you; if you believe things would always work out well; no matter the situation. Then you would always find success and happiness. Your beliefs won't stop you from encountering obstacles and barriers on the way, but they would make it easier to overcome these. You will always find loved ones to support and encourage you and you will be able to deal with failure and still move forward.

Changing your beliefs won't just change your life, it would help transform you into a better and more effective person.


And the good news is that, it is easy to change your beliefs.
Identify your beliefs in that area of your life you want to change. Ask yourself what beliefs would support your goals in these areas. Write out or search for positive affirmations. Recite these to yourself repeatedly for as long as it takes you to believe them. Just remember that for every belief you want to eliminate, there must be a positive one to replace it. Nature hates vacuum.

Go change your life; you deserve a better one!



Words For Today

Far away in the sunshine are my highest aspirations.
I may not reach them, but I can look up and see the beauty,
believe in them and try to follow where they lead.
Louisa May Alcott

Open your eyes, look within. Are you satisfied with the life you're living?
Bob Marley